ATI sued over HDCP compatibility claims

ATI is being sued by numerous individuals who are miffed at its lack of HDCP components, according to a report on the Inquirer.

ATI has, for a while now, been selling graphics chips which it claims are 'HDCP ready'. HDCP stands for High Definition Content Protection, a form of encryption that will be used on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

However, whilst the chips are HDCP 'ready', none of the boards shipping actually have the additional Silicon Image chip required to enable HDCP - making these boards theoretically compatible but not, in practice, capable of processing HDCP-encrypted content.

According to the INQ, &quot;A filing made by Stanley Batsalkin and Kenny Vargas on behalf of themselves and others in a San Jose district court alleges ATI Technologies, ATI Technologies Systems, ATI Research Silicon Valley, ATI Research and 200 &quot;John Does&quot; breached state consumer protection statutes, express warranty statures, implied warranty statutes, negligent misrepresentation common laws and unjust enrichment common laws.&quot;

The essence of their argument is that they believe ATI expressed to them that its cards were able to process HDCP content, when that was not the case.

It will be interesting to see what the courts make of this. We've seen all sorts of what we would term 'misleading' packaging from ATI's board partners, based around this HDCP issue, and the courts will have to decide just how much spin ATI can get away with. What's your thoughts on the whole issue? Let us know over in the forums.